Battle of Vise

The Battle of Vise (2 March 1106) occurred during an internecine war of the Holy Roman Empire, during which Emperor Henry IV of Germany defeated his son Henry's Papal States-backed rebel army. Occurring after the split of the Holy Roman Empire's aristocracy between the chruch and the emperor, the battle of Vise ended in defeat for the rebel army, but the emperor died soon after.

Background
In 1099, following years of conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States, the recently-elected Pope Paschal II excommunicated Emperor Henry IV of Germany. During his rule, Henry IV had extended the empire's borders to encompass present-day Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and parts of northern Italy. His lack of funding for the Catholic Church had brought him into conflict with the Pope, ending with Henry IV's deposition of Pope Gregory VII in 1080 and his declaration of himself as King of Italy.

Emperor Henry's son Henry IV, the King of Italy under the Holy Roman Empire's banner, was convinced by the Pope's adherents to take control of the empire. Henry IV convinced the bishops of Saxony and Thuringia to join him in rebelling against the empire, and at the Diet of Mainz in December 1104 Henry IV was forced to resign his crown and was imprisoned in Bockelheim Castle. He was obliged to say that he unjustly persecuted Pope Gregory VII, and that Pope Clement III (his anti-pope puppet) was illegally elected.

However, the loyal followers of Henry IV were infuriated by his forced conversion to the Papacy's party and revolted in 1106. Henry IV escaped to Cologne in the Duchy of Westphalia and gained the support of many Rhenish nobles against Emperor Henry V.

Battle
Finding considerable support in the lower Rhineland, the former emperor Henry IV raised an army and faced his son at Vise in Lorraine, in present-day France. Aided by Bishop Othbert of Liege, Henry IV and his army encountered the army of Henry and Paschal. Emperor Henry, aided by strong noblemen from across Germany, defeated the pro-Pope army and Henry V was forced to flee.

Aftermath
Henry IV did not regain his title of Emperor, for he died in Othbert's company in the city of Liege. His body was exhumed by Papal legates and buried in an unconsecrated chapel in Saint Afra, but after his excommunication was overturned in 1111, Emperor Henry IV was buried in Speyer Cathedral in August.